Computing and mental health:Intentionality and reflection at the click of a button

Ferrario, Maria Angela and Simm, Will and Gradinar, Adrian and Forshaw, Stephen and Smith, Marcia Tavares and Lee, Thomas and Smith, Ian and Whittle, Jon (2017) Computing and mental health:Intentionality and reflection at the click of a button. In: Proceedings of the 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, 2017. PervasiveHealth: Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare . Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), ESP, pp. 1-10. ISBN 9781450363631

Abstract

Automated passive sensing applications and self-reported smart diaries seem to hold promise for the management of anxiety in autism and other mental health conditions. However, passive sensing often struggles with noisy data, ambiguous feedback and weak user agency over the device, whilst self-reporting relies on user-entered data which can be time consuming and cognitively demanding. To address these limitations, we explore a different approach, whereby individuals consciously actuate personal data capture and are in control of it at all times; yet, the interaction solely involves clicking a button, thus avoiding cognitive overload whilst supporting immediate reflection. We call this approach intentive computing. Through our initial investigations we found that conscious interactions cannot only provide real-time relief in anxiety management, but can also function as memory anchors irrespective of the content captured and even prior to data visualization.